Lesley1020

Well I have sold my house - YIPPEEEE!! Had it at offers over for a few weeks, moved it to a fixed price yesterday and got an offer this morning for the full price! Of course, with the exchange rates right now - well its not as good as I thought. The tenant is leaving and these people want to move in ASAP - so I am wondering should I send the money now or wait it out to see if the exchange rates rise again.

I realize no-one can predict this by any huge degree of accuracy - but i have no clue of the reasons behind what makes it go up and down and wondered if anyone knew a link to any sites with forecasts/predictions etc. In any event I will need the money by mid October - but just wondering whether to send it August or wait it out - but terrified it will slump even more!

On a separate note, for anyone that is interested in PERM etc... I am in final review now - which is about 10 days away from certification I tell ya - I still can't quite believe it - I know I took the weirdest way to get to come here and stay (J1 and then PERM) I guess I have ridden on luck for some of it but its nice to see all the hard work (and an awful lot of hoping!!) about to come through!!

ladyofthelake

I have no idea about the exchange rates, sorry. Just wanted to say well done on the house sale and PERM. I know time was of the essence regarding the certification and your status so it must be a big relief for you. Spare a thought for those of us (my spouse) stuck in the old system Hubby's was sent in march 2004 and is probably in the bottom of a box in a dusty office at the philadelphia back log office. We're in for a long haul <sigh>

sibsie

Rates have dived due to the bombing (s). I'd be inclinced to wait but would take proper financial advice before I did anything.

Congrats and congrats.

brit/usa

Congratulations on the house sale. We moved to the US in Dec 04 and our house sale ,which had been on the market since July 04 , fell through 2 weeks before our departure. We sold it again 2 weeks ago and that has just fallen through once again! The market in the UK is terrible at the moment - our house has reduced in value by 30,000 pounds in a year. Hope everything proceeds smoothly with you.

scrubbedexpat099

I am not sure what proper financial advise is in this context, its a bit like asking who is going to win the 2.30.

I followed all the pundits/commentators etc etc etc for a few months, I might as well have used a pin.

If you know which way the rates are going, well you would not be telling people!
My advise would be that if you can not afford the rate to worsten, lock in now. If you can take a chance go with your gut feel. What goes down does not always come up.

Tinyburst

I too am no expert. But the view I took was that the rate I locked in at was way above the average for the last 10 years so I jumped at it.

The pundits feel that the US economy is rising whilst the UK economy is dipping this has in the past indicated a strong dollar and a weak pound. But as others have stated past performance is no indicator for the future. My personal view is that the dollar/sterling rate will head towards the long term average of about $1.55 to the pound.

JMHO

Tiny

BritGuyTN

agreed

a simple way to look at currency is who do investors want to put their money into?

the uk interest rate has been great recently but is dipping, the usa is going the other way.

if you need the money I would suggest transferring now using www.xe.com to maximise your rate - even commercial rates from the banks are not as good

Big D

The pound has weakened slightly as a result of recent events however it looks likely that the interest rates will come down again next month, strengthening the pound. Great for sending dollars home but bad for you! It is likely that the dollar will continue to strengthen so i would move the money sooner rather than later.

BritGuyTN

actually i'm not sure what the rate was when you posted this and whether it refered to todays bombings, but the events of two weeks ago have not affected the uk/usa exchange rate much at all

yesterday the mid rate was 1.73, today after the bombings it was 1.753...

BIZARRE

Lesley1020

Thanks everyone! The buyer wants to move in 4 weeks and I contacted xe.com (thanks for the recommendation) and they explained once I open an account you can get a lock on the exchange rate for 30 days with no deposit... after that 10% and its locked until whatever date you request.

I am going to make sure once I talk to my lawyer that their mortgage is in place and lock it once it looks like things are def. gonna go smoothly.

Just wish the flights werent so expensive right now - I would love to go see the house one more time and pack things up myself... it's strange... I guess I always thought I would be going back there one day!

BritGuyTN

thats cool, i was unaware of this feature...

franc111s

Rates are depicted by many things, espcially as we are only talking here about UK/US spot rates.

First, you need to decide whether you want to take the risks. Just yesterday the chinese revalued the dollar verses their currency and that pushed the rate exchange in your favor.

Second, the UK is looking at reducing interest rates, that will not help the exchange either - however, the US is rasing rates still.

The rate in the last 2-3 years has been between 1.4 and 1.9 - not an insignificant profit if you are on the right side of this (or loss if the other way around). If you have time, then you can wait it out. but you have to be in a positon to not need it when the markets might not be in your favor. People with money, make money because they can always wait it out.

If you decide to go forward - You can open a US dollar account (at Barclays) and move it there which is the cheapest way to move it to the USA (the spot rates are much better versus doing a sterling to dollar wire internationally. this was true a few years ago so DO check around. They can take a good few percentage points because banks don't use the real spot rate on the day.

My personal belief is the exchange will get back to 1.9 - 2.0 again in the next few years (I base this on the US debt, pension problems and slowing growth (the muddle through econonmy). It may get worse a little before getting better (for you) but there's many different risks - risk that is minimized if you have TIME on your side.

Hope that helps.

vegas

It may be that these factors will weigh against the dollar but what makes you think that currency investors would choose the Pound. The British economy is in serious trouble with a £12 billion deficit in June and Gordon Brown fiddling the figures to stay within his Golden Rule. The Dollar probably is on the way down against major international currencies but you can be sure that the pound will be falling at a faster rate against these currencies than the dollar.

MiniBrit

Well I hope your sale doesn't take as long as mine to go through. I accepted an offer on my London flat in March, we have only just completed TODAY!!! I wasn't even in a chain, but there was a problem with my former neighbours not signing the documents on the freehold quickly enough which dragged things out for a couple of months. Whats gutting is that the exchange rate was something like $1.90 when I accepted the offer and now its down to $1.75ish...

So like you, I might not transfer all of it over now and monitor the exchange rate in the coming months hoping it will go up again... then move it.

Congrats and good luck!!!! cheers!!!

MB

MiniBrit

Wow, after reading this post I phoned xe.com too. I asked them what their rate would be today, they quoted me $1.73 whereas my bank quoted me $1.67, looks like xe.com is the way to go!!!

Well done ExPats!! what would I do without you??